Rebalance Startup: Hyperface, credit-card-as-a-service, raises $9M in seed
India’s fintech inclusion story is nothing short of a visible, multi-generational shift in consumer behavior. It’s hard to imagine a cashless shopping/purchase experience, today, even though UPI and digital payments are only a decade-old phenomenon.
With 400M digital shoppers, brands and businesses can now reach the population that was previously inaccessible. In fact, 55% of the Indian population will soon join the middle class by 2025, making it the largest middle-class segment in the world. This will make a significant portion of aspirational internet users eligible for pay later or credit cards resulting in an exponential growth of credit cards in India by 2027.
There is a 2x growth in the issuance of co-branded credit cards in the last two years.
Brands today want to deeply engage the digital shopper and simplify financing the purchase. They want cards that are an extension of their omnichannel customer experience. Co-branded credit cards have been around for some time but launching and managing a modern credit program is a painful and complex process for brands.
The launch of a credit card program today takes somewhere up to 12–18 months for a brand. From bank integrations (that take forever) to working with multiple vendors without any real, internal knowledge of how to navigate red tape, it’s a hassle.
Hyperface is Asia’s first credit card-as-a-service platform that helps brands custom-build their own credit program 10x faster and simpler.
Founded by Ramanathan RV and Aishwarya Jaishankar in 2021, Hyperface takes away all the technical grunt work of back-end API integrations and red tape to reduce time-to-launch into a matter of weeks.
Ramanathan RV, previously co-founder & CTO of Juspay (funded by Softbank) comes with extensive experience in building scalable products. Aishwarya Jaishankar, previously Senior VP — Digital Products & Platforms at HSBC and Head Payments CMS product at Kotak Mahindra bank comes with 15+ years of experience in driving multiple innovations and multi-functional digital transformation projects at banks.
They joined Rebalance Accelerator Cohort 04 in 2022.
We’re excited to announce Hyperface has recently closed $9M in seed funding led by 3one4Capital, with participation from Flipkart Ventures, Rebalance Angel Community, Groww, and existing investors.
Hyperface CEO Ramanathan RV said, “Hyperface is deeply committed to the idea of embedded finance and to accelerate credit inclusion in India. We feel very fortunate to have partnered with 3one4 capital, Flipkart Ventures, Groww, and others in a journey towards the next big evolutionary change in the financial services landscape.”
Hyperface is building Asia’s first modern credit card stack that comes pre-integrated with banks, compliance, and regulation-ready PWAs and SDKs to make it faster for brands to launch feature-rich co-branded cards.
Speaking on the investment, Pranav Pai, Managing Partner, 3one4 Capital, said, “Credit card program management is a uniquely valuable fintech vertical that brings together multiple stakeholders to support differentiated user experiences. The team at Hyperface has channeled their deep domain expertise to build the definitive platform in the space. We are excited to partner with Ram and Aishwarya on their journey to drive this evolution in digital financial services.”
“With under 5 percent of customers in India having credit cards and the growing trend of embedded finance, co-branded credit cards are here to stay and we aim to empower banks and brands with the right and compliant technology to launch and scale them,” said Aishwarya Jaishankar, Co-founder, of Hyperface.
Hyperface recently launched the AU LIT card, India’s first customizable credit card in partnership with AU Bank. The card has been powered by Hyperface’s proprietary Smart Benefits Engine, which allows credit card issuers and cobrands to construct the right value proposition for their customers. From instant cashback to accelerated reward points, from lounge access to milestone-based voucher rewards, it allows clients to pick and curate the right credit card program. This product has seen a great response from the credit card industry.
“Hyperface’s capabilities are extremely relevant in the Indian context as digital companies increasingly seek to enhance credit offerings for customers. Backed by an experienced team, Hyperface’s offerings seek to reduce the time taken for businesses to integrate fintech offerings in a seamless manner, and we are pleased to be able to support them as they grow,” said Ravi, Senior Vice President, and Head, Corporate Development, Flipkart.
“We’re happy to partner with Aishwarya and Ram on this journey to accelerate credit inclusion in India and beyond. With rising aspirations and disposable incomes, it will be interesting to see how brands leverage embedded finance to create a truly omnichannel experience” added Aishwarya Malhi & Vikas Kumar, Co-founders at Rebalance & Rebalance Angel Community.
They previously raised $1.5M in pre-seed from Kunal Shah from CRED, Harsh Jain from Groww, GFC Capital, 021 Capital, Better Capital, Amara Venture, and executives from Flipkart, Innoven Capital, Kodo, Tracxn, rippling and more.
They will use the funds from this new round to strengthen its credit-cards-as-a-service product and build a strong team.
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